I'm an international student with a Bachelor's degree from my home country, where class/module selection was fairly flexible. I'm a little confused as to how it works here (in the UK and at Sheffield in particular).

In the programme specification for my course (Software Engineering), it says:

"Level 1
has a fixed core of 100 credits, and 20 unrestricted credits, offering a free choice of subsidiary modules, although students may choose to study all 120 credits from within the Department if they wish."

Can someone clarify what "unrestricted credits" signifies? Can I take any module from any other faculty (we would call this an "elective" )? If so, how do I browse lists of available modules? In practice, are we rather limited in which elective modules we can take based on our course timetable?

Sorry if these are dumb questions but I can't find the answers anywhere. In particular, I'm wondering if I can take a language course or a biology course, or if these unrestricted credits should be more closely related to my primary studies.

I'm an international student with a Bachelor's degree from my home country, where class/module selection was fairly flexible. I'm a little confused as to how it works here (in the UK and at Sheffield in particular).

In the programme specification for my course (Software Engineering), it says:

"Level 1
has a fixed core of 100 credits, and 20 unrestricted credits, offering a free choice of subsidiary modules, although students may choose to study all 120 credits from within the Department if they wish."

Can someone clarify what "unrestricted credits" signifies? Can I take any module from any other faculty (we would call this an "elective" )? If so, how do I browse lists of available modules? In practice, are we rather limited in which elective modules we can take based on our course timetable?

Sorry if these are dumb questions but I can't find the answers anywhere. In particular, I'm wondering if I can take a language course or a biology course, or if these unrestricted credits should be more closely related to my primary studies.

Some modules are unrestricted and can be taken by anyone. It has t be approved once selected, so imagine thats you proving it fits timetable wise.